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Peoples
Peoples Unlike your species, your people isn’t something innate and in the flesh. Your people represents the culture that most shapes your worldview – be it where you grew up, the place you live now, or the values of an old mentor, your species doesn’t restrict your people. While many peoples have associated species who might have a long history there, or who might be demographically predominant, any species can call any people home if it represents their culture. Here are a few ways you can link your character to a people: Native-born You were born to this people, and growing up, it coloured your worldview. No matter where the road brings you, this people is your identity, the place – or group – that feels the most like home. Diaspora Though time may have scattered you, the people your ancestors knew and their traditions have nonetheless continued in you. Though you may not have been born in your homeland or with your greater people, you nonetheless are one with them. Immigrant Sometimes, the place you’re born and the place you grew up are more names and facts than identity. As time shifts, we can become one with our new surroundings, internalizing their values and traditions. This people wasn’t one from your childhood, but it’s still yours. Formative It doesn’t have to be our parents, home, or birth that define our people. Mentors, teachers, close friends, and powerful memories can shape you just as much. This people best describes what made you who you are. Lastly, your people is not a nation. Writing your people down grants no fealty, and the same people might be governed by many different hands over the years while staying largely intact. West Coast Mainland Peoples The West Coast Mainland Peoples consist of the Provincials, the Craglanders, the Lowlanders, the Winelanders, and the Longhallers. From the northern boreal forests, past the bay of one thousand sails, and south to the Redwine Isles, this major trade corridor has long held strong political importance. Winelanders To the south, in the warm seas to the northeast of the Divide, lie isles covered in terraced vineyards and open-air bathhouses. These are the Vineyard Isles, home to the Winelanders – a people with a history of cuisine, winemaking, naval warfare, and shipbuilding. Visitors will delight in the fine herbs, wines, seafood dishes, and olives of the isles. Redwine Keep anchors this scattering of islands together, host to cutthroat mercantile shippers and magical researchers, while the village are largely growers, wine-makers, and fisherfolk. Winelanders are predominantly elfborn and human. Worship of Prospera is common here. Provincials In the land of palaces and hilltop farms lie the Provincials, a people with a history of naval trade, religious practice, and more recently, elven revivalism. Visitors to the provinces will enjoy light ales and fine bread, with a variety of hard cheeses. The aristocratic metropolis of Westwatch and the long-lived ostentatious clergy clash with the small, tight-knit, devout villages that bring grain, produce, and dairy to the coast. Provincials are predominantly elfborn and human. Worship of Prospera is fervous here. Craglanders To the north of Westwatch, limestone cliffs and craggy highlands spread, host to a myriad husks of old forts and stone houses. Here lie the Craglanders, a people with a history of castle-building, masonry, militaristic tourneys and championships, and more recently, dwarven revivalism. Visitors to the craglands will find dark oat-and-nut breads, gin, mead, soft cheeses, and sausage. Cragholm and Raven’s Rook are long-time hosts to major fortified port towns and famous masonry and architecture – while inland and westward, villages and towns repurpose and refurbish the ancient into new use. Craglanders are predominantly dwarfborn and human. Worsip of Prospera is zealous here. Lowlanders A gateway to the inner mainland, the lowlands are home to rolling plains and ranches, carting shipments along riverboats from the ruins at Lake Prosperity along the river to the ever-sinking city of Delta. Here lie the Lowlanders, a people with a history of agriculture and artisanship. Visitors will be delighted by the wide bread and pastry traditions built from abundant produce and grain, with salt meat from inland and fresh fish from the sea. Lowlanders are predominatly human. Worship of Prospera is common here. Longhallers In the boreal forests that cover the north lie the Longhallers, a long-lived culture of musicians, artists, carpenters, and warriors. Their namesake are the Longhalls, vast homes where mashed-together chosen and built families of twenty to thirty share a long, tall wooden hall. Unlike the humanoid lands along the rest of the coast, dramatic hierarchical structures in architecture begin to fade – the capital merely a sprawling, well-defended port city of longhalls and lumber yards like the villages that dot the woodlands far inland. As the woodlands sparsen, the longhalls move from arch-framed shorn-timber halls to repurposed upturned boat-hulls, where raiders of old would port boats from the forests to the distant eastern shore. Visitors will enjoy preserved and fermented fish dishes, alongside wild game and a number of rich barbequed boreal tubers. Longhallers are largely Vulpe and Domesticus, with lots of Squirrelfolk, Vulpe, and Ratfolk in a more diverse society. Worship of ancestors is sparsely practiced here. Central Mainland Peoples The Central Mainland Peoples consist of the Horselanders, the Revivalists, the Roaders, the Grove Folk, the Syndicalists, the Gate Homes, the Fortlanders, and the Tundra Nomads. Along the highlands that connect the northern mountains through to the tip of the Great River, many wars have been fought, won, and lost. Revivalists Still, after two calamities and two wars, some return to rebuild the fallen kingdom of Sable. These are the Revivalists, now long-departed citizens seeking to rebuilt their lost homeland. The mosaics, sandstone palaces, ancient and refined alchemical traditions, and long history of archiving and academia are idolized by Revivalists, seeking to repair and restore what remains in the desert and jungles. Visitors will rejoice in a variety of dishes made from tropical fruit, imported rice, soft perfumed cheeses, and yogurt – all seasoned with local spices, and served with local tea. Revivalists are generally Ratfolk, but they’re an accepting bunch – especially to alchemists and scholars. With the restored, ancient city of Riverbend to the south and the new bustling gate town of Chimera’s Gate, perhaps the kingdom might make it. Worship of Skrit is zealous among them. Horselanders Along the steppes to the west of the Ring Mountains, riders charge and herds wander the pastures. Castles and fortifications are new here – the the sprawling southern caravaner hub city of Forks was once just a tall signpost, after all. Far longer-lived are the camps, the faintly anchored villages with wood outer walls and cloth inner ones, and the thundering charge of hunting parties. Visitors might be unnerved by traditions of cooking organs stuffed in other organs, burying hot coals and food for a day, or curing and tenderizing meat for a week under a hunter’s saddle. Most horselanders are human – and tensions in the border state only worsen prejudice and homogeneity. Worship of Prospera is common here. Gate Homes Through the checkpoints within the sealed-and-tunneled Iron Gate lies the lush Pacim Ring – surrounded by hundreds of kilometres of tough terrain in all directions, the fields here are lush and the lakes are teeming with freshwater fish. This is not naturally, however – centuries of rigid bureaucracy and public works keep the land rich. They say here that you need three patters for a perfect life – the patter of children’s feet on your floors, the patter of your many rings on wood, and the patter if quill in inkwells. Societal standing is closely linked to your place in the governmental ladder, the number of children you’ve begotten or adopted, and the number of spouses you’ve collected. Many a marriage is ruined by deciding whose spouses move where – progressive social change and better gender equality have rendered the traditional sprawling mousefolk Home more and more unsustainable. Drawn out by alienation, social stigma, and in search of safe havens, many youth in the Gate Homes are fleeing through the gates. Visitors can expect elaborate meat dishes, vast community barbeques, fire-roasted lake fish and heirloom greens. Gate homers are predominantly mousefolk – polite and superficially accepting of strangers, but with subtle prejudice nonetheless. Worship of Skrit is sparse here. Syndicalists Across the Iron Gates, in the mountains long ago under Pacim’s purview, the Prosdoc War left many outside when the gate closed. Under dramatically increasing labour requirements and decreasing pay, coupled with ineffective official labour protocols, the miners left outside formed the Mountain Syndicates, a number of free-associating contract-based villages. After forming a confederacy with the Wildur villages, internal trade of stone and metal for food and wood from the forests and swamps has greatly improved quality of life. Syndicalists are visually distinct, with bright fur and hair die, black leather and chopped Dwarven tech. Syndicalists are largely mousefolk, but they are reasonably accepting of strangers. Many syndicalists are non-religious. Grove Folk Within the Great Forest, compasses fold and maps spin wildly. Unwise travellers are often doomed to a swift death in the low brush, lost beyond hope. Locals know that the best roads are above. With outposts and villages hanging from treetops, the Groves are sacred – centuries-old cultvivated rings of trees, now grown to form impassible (and unlikely) walls, encircling the rare safe places below the canopy. Here, protective rites and rituals have continued for centuries, while hunting and gathering have sustained the folk long into the modern era. Every grove is a self-governing community, confederated into a larger state. Visitors will enjoy a rich variety of game, fresh forest fruit, and wild crops. Most grove folk are squirrelfolk – they’re somewhat distrustful of outsiders, more out of hesitation to share grove secrets than out of genuine prejudice. Worship of the grove is common here, and worship of Skrit is sparsely practiced. Fortlanders To the north, in the mountains beyond the pines, ancient Dwarven holds have been repurposed. Now, they are host to great intergenerational Domesticus Houses; groups of twenty to thirty inhabiting the old, rebuilt, and newly recreated watchtowers and outposts. Life is highly seasonal here – hunting, gathering, growing, preserving, and curing during the summers, while doing repairs, crafts, maintenance, and artistic pursuits during the winters. Here, a grand storytelling tradition lives on – with academics transcribing written history in factual detail while the patriarchs, matriarchs, and their pass-ons deliver the lessons and legends of old. Visitors will enjoy entertainment – if they don’t enjoy the slow-cooked meals and elaborate spiced jams and jellies. Many Domesticus are here, alongside a sizeable Vulpe, Ratfolk, Lupus, and Mousefolk population. The largest fortress lies at Hammerhold, but the new outpost at Dwarfroad’s End grows as goods are shipped into the abandoned Dwarfroads. Worship of the ancestors is common here. Tundra Nomads They follow the trails, kept marked and clear by continued journeys, the cairns leaving reminders that magic renders forever visible through the snow. The Nomads travel together in clans of 30-50, of about 5-6 united families. During adolescence, children prepare for their Travelling – they are told to travel the breadth of the world, then to return if they should decide to stay with the clan. Newcomers are welcome – strangers discovered lost in the snows or who seek company at Last Hearth are inducted into the clan once they survive two winter solstices, and one summer solstice. Every clan celebrates the winter solstice in the colossal cabin at Last Hearth – and celebrate the summer together at the tallest peak of the northern mountains. Most nomads are Lupus – few mainlanders can handle the continued cold – but many domesticus, caprine, rein, ursine, and lapine have joined their ranks over the years alongside many elementalists to help the shorter-furred handle the cold. Worship of the ancestors and animal spirits are both common here. Roaders A people without villages, but with homes. A civilization with no homeland, but many roads home. These are the Roaders – the disparate eternal travellers, united by the ways of the wagon-wheel. Many lifelong adventurers are Roaders, as are a number of refugees from the fallen southern kingdom who found a home in no land. Roaders are legendary for their bardic tradition of Campfire, their myriad recipes that can be made on the road and cooked around a campfire, and the elaborate caravans they build, paint, and maintain. Of course, Roaders are inevitably multilingual and worldly from both their eternal travel and their friendliness to the travelling caravans, and while their people hosts many Lupus who never ended their Travelling and Ratfolk who rebuilt their homeland on wheels, it is endlessly diverse, its traditions more quilt than tapestry – everyone sews a patch. Worship of Skrit is common here, and many religions are sparsely practiced. Imperial Coast Peoples The Imperial Coast Peoples consist of the Henge Folk, the Rain Kingdom, the Sun Kingdom, the Cloud Kingdom, the Boat Folk, the Sothites, and the Imperials. Long dominated by the reach of Eastlanding, the distant isles and their settlements provide bypasses, allowing non-imperial trade to flourish. Henge Folk In the Wild Swamps, beasts and monsters encircle hostile patches of swamp, unless a ferrying drude grants passage. From there, pole-driven rafts float into the henges of the Swamp Drudes – where stone monoliths mark out underwater homes and garden patches, and plinths elevate the homes, businesses, and taverns of henge folk villages. Visitors will enjoy fried seafood – fresh, brackish, and seaside – alongside a great variety of ancestral-breed greens and many intoxicant specialties. Chief among these is Swampgrass – the calming intoxicant that binds the Henge together. Every henge has its own herb strain, which is one with the core henge tree itself, through a buried root system (transplanted swampgrass grows as lone plants, called “weed”), and drudic magic binds those protected by the henge to the core tree and the land’s beasts through swampgrass smoke. Most henge folk are tortuga, though many squirrelfolk and ratfolk live here, alongside a decent recent influx of mousefolk. They’re an accepting bunch. Worship of the henge is fervent here. Rain Kingdom In the northern jungles is the long-standing Rain Kingdom, long since swallowed by the Estron empire. Those selfsame bloodlines have flowed long since, the old kingdom effectively subjugate to the Sun Kingdom’s emperors. Visitors will be intrigued by strange fruit and lowland rice, mixed with fish and wild game into elaborate soups and rice dishes. The city of Shadowgate is the anchor of the kingdom, rivers from the north and east bringing goods from port villages to the roads, then into the great cave city. The forests around here are rainy and sub-tropical, growing cold in the summers. Many Pythona and Draconians live here. Worship of the Elements is common here. Sun Kingdom The heart of the Estron Empire, the Sun Kingdom blankets the plains, with Haven at its heart and Eastlanding at the edge of the coastline, extending reach over land and sea. Rice and grains feed both people and herds, and the fish and shellfish from the seaside and inland rivers build a complex, elaborate culinary tradition. Many Pythona and Draconians live here. Worship of the Elements is common here. Cloud Kingdom To the south, mist rolls off the mountains and fills the narrow and winding valleys amid the Cloud Kingdom’s peaks, where villages and monasteries reside – connected via roads and bridges to the central grand fortified monastery city of Monkskeep. Visitors will savour the elaborately seasoned dishes, made from local meat and imported staples from the Empire, alongside local foraged herbs and fungi. The region has millenia of smithing in its history from the rich iron in the rock here. Many Pythona and Draconians live here. Worship of the Elements is fervent. Imperials Perhaps you knew it was propaganda – or perhaps you didn’t. Either way, the push for the eastern islands has been nothing but turmoil. For the love of Aqui, by the winds of Auri, for the lost children of Terri and with hearts burning for Igni, the Imperials set out, weapons in hand, to settle the eastern islands over the past few decades. But for all those who spread for the Empire, many spread to avoid it – and they raid and pillage day by day. When times are good, it’s a land of adventure and action. When they’re bad, it’s a land of desperation and slit throats. And at all times, the Emperor’s eyes are there. Many Draconians and Pythona are here. Worship of the Elements is zealous. Boat Folk The violence and domination of the mainland milks the working folk dry. Merchants, sea-legged roaders, and disaffected post-war navy all fled together for the unmapped shelter of the Eastern Islands – until recently, a secret whispered by those in search of righteous solitude. Free fisherfolk, monster-killing sea slayers, and unjustly exiled political refugees have long inhabited these isles, well before they were mapped. In silent truce between the hermitic, mercantile, and settlers, the Boat Folk blend their former homes and cultures into their new homes, everyone bringing with them a little bit of their old peoples. What they didn’t want to bring was the domineering, spiteful hand of the Empire. Painted as pirates, raiders, and mad marauders, the Boat Folk will not be governed. They are a people with no core species, and worship of many religions is present in sparse patches. Sothites The Lowlanders and Horselanders shattered into an kingdom for humans. The Craglanders shattered into a kingdom for dwarfborn. The Vineyard Isles and Provinces shattered into a kingdom for elfborn. Here, in the unsettled isles to the south, the humans, elfborn, and dwarfborn who fled their homelands to fight back against the Prosdoc Empire’s genocidal hand have allied with the refugee Skytouched and homeland-seeking Ratfolk to form a free republic. Its name is Soth, its hand takes all, its ears hear all words, and its eyes watch evermore. Though Soth might dominate the southern shores, it has been heavily sanctioned by the Estron Empire, Celestia, and the three shattered kingdoms – strangling international trade for all but the most highly sought goods. The public works have been built, the navies have been constructed, the debts cannot be repaid, and the food is running low. For at least a decade, the Sothites have been squatters in their own homes. Many humans, elfborn, dwarfborn, ratfolk, pythona, draconians, and skytouched live here. Worship is common, but scattered and decentralized. Northern Shore Houses Long separated from the mainland by towering mountains and storms of elemental ice, distant bypasses to the east and west – and a few brutal routes through the mountains – have linked these once isolated civilizations. These peoples, like the Tundra Nomads, live on trade routes – but during summers only. During the winters, they take shelter together in great groups – the four houses. They are Hare House, Bear House, Ram House, and Reindeer House. Each greater Northern Shore House has four smaller houses; one for each of the Four Houses. Historically, the northern shore houses have never used steel or alchemy until recently. Hare House Among the Northern Shore Houses, the Hare houses – there is one for each greater House – summer in the deepest wilds, and winter at the centre of the camp. They are expected to be scouts, rangers, messengers, and cartographers in the summer, while being tool-makers, scribes, and criers in the winter. While summering, they often travel in groups of four or five, trading off with cousins and friends met in the winter as they pass other groups sharing territory. The Hare House is very strictly Lapine-only, and exceptions are often heavily stigmatized. Ram House The Ram Houses winter at the distant edge of the camp. There, they are forbidden to the inner camps – the inner camps offer them food, and they keep the camp safe from evils. In the summer, the Ram House is expected to perform the necessary evils of life – justice, execution, monster-killing, as well as the Ill Magics: secondary Elementalism (lightning, poison, acid, pain, force, ice), ritual magic, dark magic, and demonic magic. While summering, they set skulls and grisly trophies on spikes where they kill – both so that the central houses know it’s safe, and they know to be wary. Even in summer, central houses to not interact with the Ram House unless needed. The Ram House is very strictly Caprine-only, and exceptions are often heavily stigmatized. Bear House The outer nucleus of the winter camp is inhabited by the Bear Houses – expected to be warriors, labourers, or merchants in the winter; and expected to maintain trails, run supply routes, and maintain outposts during summer. The Bear House’s voice is often held in high regard, as their sway controls much of the labour, supplies, and strength of the Greater House. The Bear House is very strictly Ursine-only, and exceptions are often heavily stigmatized. Reindeer House The Reindeer Houses are the functionaries, hunters, and gatherers – as well as practitioners of the Good Magics: primary Elementalism (fire, water, earth, air) and Celestial magic. During the summer, their form great roving bands – charging hunters, meandering gatherers, proud noble escorts, and travelling magi. While the houses are always said to be equal, there has always been a subtle hierarchy – with the Reindeer House above, the Bear House shortly below, the Hare House a ways down, and the Ram House far outcast from the central three. The Reindeer House is very strictly Rein-only, and exceptions are often heavily stigmatized. Freedlands Nations On liberated Giant land, new nations and peoples have arisen in freedom. They are collectively known as the Freed: the Legbreaks, Demon Bay, and Evernight. To the south, giant land sprawls; in the Divide, sheltered from the world by great cracks where the water falls through, lies the tyrannical planar autocracy of Celestia. Legbreaks The Legbreak Mountains lie across the sea from the Provinces and Craglands, great spines of slate that crumble down slippery hills into sharp-bottomed muddy lowlands dotted with small caves and alcoves. While horrendous to traverse, these lands provided the added advantage the first Freed needed to both outmatch their Giant captors, and quickly work with the natural slate to build free lives. This is the land of the Freed, where the holds have become conquered capitals, forts and barracks have become villages, and what were once covert escape paths and wartime approaches have become trade routes. Any explorer needs rope to climb the crags. Visitors will be delighted and pleased to bring rations – historical cuisine involves a lot of scraps and organ meat with little else to colour the palate. Luckily, foreign cuisine is flooding the area, and in the past few decades, a rich culture of street cuisine has emerged. While in the cities, docksides and markets have interesting culinary highlights to break up the salt pork and beans. Many red, green, and pattern Torgs live here. Demon Bay Nestled near a fog-belching crack in the world near the tundra’s edge, Void Bay was home to the Glow Torgs before their freeing. With the aid of the Freed of the Legbreaks, they won their freedom, but as the Prosdoc War cut naval supply chains, they had to retreat. It was then that the people of former Daemonica emerged from a portal to support the residents, and a deal was struck. Now, the former tyrant demon serves as the field marshal along the Freed Front, and the demontouched that once inhabited his realm began living with the glow torgs. With one group recently freed with scarce inherited traditions and another emerging from stifling autocracy, the people of demon bay are finding their place in the world, absorbing culture from their neighbours and trading partners. Here, the ice has been melting rapidly since this event, as local plants turn greyer and the rocks and earth turn to tones of red and green. Visitors will be interested by the burgeoning tradition of magicooking; international dishes prepared using elemental flair. Many glow Torgs and Demontouched live here. Evernight While the former residents of Daemonica left for Void Bay, the former residents of Tenebra left for the Morrowlands, helping their revolts and overthrowing giants. Plunging the vast plain into darkness, light has yet to return – crops and plants have turned pale white or lavender, growing by moonlight. The creature that once ruled the Darktouched has disappeared – now, they live with the Morrow Torgs, rapidly growing their cities on the ever-dark plain, dominating the now free northwestern trade passage. In the lurch of revolution, many Morrow torgs have assimilated with the Darktouched, and practice both of dark magic and dark ritual-influenced cultural norms have begun to dominate. The villages are hushed like libraries, the markets bustle faintly like a sparse ruler-free court. Visitors should not expect meat, and should be heavily cautioned against broaching the subject. Many Morrow Torgs and Darktouched live here. Celestia The idyllic plains have taken over the ashlands. The Smoke now billows a pale turquoise with a calming hum. The distant, twisted dark forest now is clear and twittering with the sound of birds. Once sharing an isle with the Dark colony of Tenebra and the Demonic colony of Daemonica, the former two have departed, and the grand celestial Alistair has spread eagerly here to the isles. Visitors are discouraged altogether unless specifically requested, and traders report a stale, clinical, terrified smily stillness among the Skytouched here. It is said that there is nothing here that displeases Alistair – what he dislikes is flattened, cast away, obliterated, or eaten as an apératif. There are no houses or homes here – workshops are open-air, and Alistair assures his people that they are safe to sleep freely and openly beneath the sky. But from whom? Almost exclusively Skytouched live here. Skytouched, Humans, Elfborn, and Dwarfborn are permitted to touch the soil. Torgs must wear boots and cannot stay overnight.